U.S. URANIUM BOOM

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27576, 5 February 1955, Page 7

U.S. URANIUM BOOM

“Moving To Top In Production”

(Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, February 3. Mr Jesse Johnson, the Atomic Energy Commission’s uranium expert, testified today that the United States was in the midst of a uranium boom, and was moving toward the top in the world production. Chief of the Atomic Energy Commission’s raw’ materials division, he told the Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee that' domestic uranium production had enjoyed “phenomenal development,’’ particularly in the last two years. He said domestic mining has now reached the status of a 100,000,000-dol-lar annual operation, and had become an important industry to several Western States. Mr Johnson appeared at a series of hearings being conducted by the joint committee on peace-time uses of the atom. Uranium is the basic raw material in developing atomic energy. He said that America was 90 per cent, dependent on overseas sources for uranium when the atomic energy programme began only a few years ago. This percentage had shifted greatly, he said, but, cautioned by the AJE.C. chairman, Mr Lewis Strauss, he told the committee he could not disclose what share of the United States supply now was imported. Mr Johnson said most of the expansion of United States production has been accomplished by individual prospectors and private industry.